UK Christmas spending to hit record £77.56bn in 2016

A Europe-wide study of seasonal shopping has found that UK Christmas spending will lead the continent to hit a record £77.56bn this year.

Although UK Christmas spending will only be up by 1.9 per cent year-on-year, UK households are set to spend almost double the European average.

The UK Christmas spending bonanza will be powered along by mobile devices, which will experience a major growth of 51.2 per cent on 2015.

The study from Vouchercodes.co.uk parent RetailMeNot and the Centre for Retail Research tracked British Christmas spending trends from a wider study of 450 large retailers in nine countries and 3,000 consumers.

According to the findings, smartphones and tablets will account for 42.3 per cent of UK Christmas spending where online is concerned, to generate £8.87bn for UK retailers. As a result, Britain will lead Europe for mobile shopping over Christmas.

Christmas Spending Online, Percentages and Values

(financial figures are in billions [bn])

% online

value online

2015

2016

2015

2016

change

UK

24.4%

27.0%

£18.570

£20.966

12.9%

France

14.7%

16.3%

£8.411

£9.471

12.6%

Germany

18.9%

21.0%

£12.161

£13.815

13.6%

Italy

6.6%

8.5%

£2.422

£3.151

30.1%

Spain

10.2%

13.2%

£2.265

£3.008

32.8%

Netherlands

11.8%

13.3%

£1.311

£1.501

14.5%

Belgium

10.5%

12.2%

£0.911

£1.041

14.3%

Totals

13.9%

18.9%

£46.051

£52.953

15.0%

“Once again this highlights the increasing complexity of the shopping journey, and the retailers who will win this Christmas will be those embracing digital and mobile as well as moving towards a seamless shopping experience across all channels,” said Severine Philardeau, VP of retail and brand solutions at VoucherCodes.co.uk, part of RetailMeNot.

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In terms of UK Christmas spending, the average home will splash out £809.97 on average. This will go towards food and drink, travel, decorations and gifts, with the latter accounting for 58.5 per cent of the budget.

Comparatively across Europe, the average spend will be £540.32, while Spain Christmas spending will be the least on the continent at £348.25 per home.

Christmas spend per household 2016

Gifts

Food& Drink

Holiday travel

Decorations

Totals

UK

£473.83

£223.55

£83.43

£29.16

£809.97

France

£273.48

£153.23

£43.64

£14.55

£484.90

Germany

£344.09

£196.09

£52.41

£24.05

£616.64

Italy

£217.79

£125.66

£28.52

£13.49

£385.46

Spain

£188.45

£125.41

£22.29

£12.20

£348.35

NL

£211.03

£146.10

£36.12

£12.58

£405.83

Belgium

£294.47

£172.34

£33.64

£17.07

£517.52

Average

£305.00

£169.21

£47.07

£19.14

£540.42

Philardeau continued: “Brexit or no Brexit, Christmas will always be a peak holiday for spending and this year is no different. We’re continuing to see Brits not only spend more in general compared to their European counterparts, but spend more on mobile with a 51 per cent increase since last year.”

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